Gen13 Mystic Training: Grunge
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Side Story to Gen13: Mystics. After discovering they each have magic, Harry Potter set about getting special training for each of his teammates. This is the story of Edmund Percival Chang's, aka Grunge, training as a Kekkaishi.


Title: Gen13 Mystic Training: Grunge

Author: Joshua "The Evil Guy"

Rating: M (Due to Language, Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Content)

Disclaimer: Gen13 and all associated characters and events were created by Jim Lee and J. Scott Campbell, and the original comics/events this story covers distributed by Image Comics, though are now owned by DC Comics. There will be brief mentions of Harry Potter, but he doesn't show up in this story. Other crossovers, mostly from concepts and magic powers will be mentioned. Niklaren "Niko" Goldeye belongs to Tamora Pierce, drawn from her "Circle of Magic" series. I don't own any of it and I'm not making any money from all this, so don't bother suing me. No spoilers in this one, just character development and a bit of rewriting.

Summary: Side Story to Gen13: Mystics. After discovering they each have magic, Harry Potter set about getting special training for each of his teammates. This is the story of Edmund Percival Chang's, aka Grunge, training as a Kekkaishi.

 _Grunge_

Edmond Percival Chang, aka "Grunge", who would sooner smack you down than let you call him anything _but_ Grunge, was a paradox of a person. He was immensely self-involved, almost to the point of self-delusion, but at the same time his morals were intact and aligned with the general standard ethics of the time he lived it, enough to the point he could be said to be quite selfless at times. Boiled right down to it, he was a simple creature that enjoyed his creature-comforts, but when it came to doing the "right thing", there would be no hesitation whatsoever on his part. He'll whine and complain and procrastinate, but there's no denying he's a good man.

The paradox comes into play in that he has a genius level IQ, photographic memory, excellent health, and all the makings of an outstanding person to know. But he's a pervert, he's lazy, he'll go surfing before doing any kind of work, he'll play video games rather than study, and he'll flirt (badly) with every female around sooner than genuinely connect with and commit to one woman. In short, despite all of his advantages, he's a bum. Not only is he consciously aware of this fact, he genuinely takes pride in how he seems to sabotage his own life, or at least that is how it appears to the outside observer.

Grunge doesn't talk about his past much, and he lives life on the day-to-day, so he has no plans for his future and he reacts to the moment as it comes. He knows that Roxy thinks they're dating or are a couple or whatever. He doesn't say or do anything to either encourage or discourage that line of thinking. When she was being tortured by Threshold right in front of him, he did the right thing, he did everything he could to rescue her, to save the girl. But after they escaped and settled into Sunnydale, neither did he start taking her out on dates or trying to get into her pants, or stop flirting and 'looking' at any and all nearby girls either.

Then the mage came along with a major buzz kill. Grunge was, understandably, a bit put out by their conversation and what it would mean for his immediate future.

 _Lynch Villa_

 _Sunnydale, CA_

 _April 1999_

"This should only take an hour, at the most," Niklaren Goldeye said. "Then I can head on back to Toronto and deal with young people _far_ more mature than you lot."

"An hour?" Grunge whined. "C'mon, man! Can't you hear those waves? They're callin' me dude!"

"Well, since you're so impatient," Harry smirked, stepping in front of the tattooed surfer bum, "you get to go first, Grunge. Congratulations. You're the guinea pig so that the others can be reassured."

"Uh... I, um, well, when you put it that way, I don't mind goin' last, y'know...?" Grunge gulped.

"Really? You sure?" he was asked.

At the nervous nod, Harry continued, "You won't mind just sitting here, doing absolutely nothing, just waiting while Niko talks with the others, listening to the call of the waves, staying completely still?"

Sweat began to bead on the youth's forehead, and it wasn't even a few seconds before he broke.

"All right man! I'll do it! It won't hurt will it? I mean, I'll still do it, but I still won't have to stay here for the whole hour, right dude?" he begged.

"Best get this outta the way for all our sakes," Harry guided the shorter, yet bulkier man inside.

"You do have a talent for understatement, don't you Harry?" Niko joked, leading Grunge further inside.

The glass doors were closed behind them, but still Niko lead the younger man further into the house, specifically into one of the spare ground floor offices that neither Caitlin, Harry, nor Lynch had moved into. Unlike the other aforementioned offices, this one simply had a conference table desk in the middle with four roller office chairs on each of the sides. Niko actually pulled out one of the chairs and gestured for Grunge have a seat, which he reluctantly accepted.

"Seriously, dude, this ain't gonna take long or be a multiple-choice question thing, is it? Cause I really suck at test-taking, and don't even get me started on the whole essay question thing," Grunge complained.

Smiling to assure him, Niko sat down across from Grunge and began by saying, "This actually won't take long at all Grunge. As Harry explained, I can _see_ magic. I already know exactly what your mystic powers are, how you can use them, and where you can receive further instruction in their use. This is all so I can explain it to you. So, how long it takes, Grunge," the black-haired mage smirked as his dark eyes met with Grunge's brown eyes, "depends entirely upon you, and how long it takes you to understand and demonstrate that you can in fact use your mystic powers."

Blinking in surprise, he slowly nodded his head and replied. "OK then, lay it on me, Neko!"

Sighing with a small amount of frustration, somehow knowing exactly how Grunge had phrased his name, Niko moved past it and proceeded with the explanation. "You are what is generally known as a _Kekkaishi_. Literally it means Barrier Master. All it really means is that your magic allows to to create magical barriers, called _kekkai_ , that allow you to trap or destroy various evil spirits or demons. It also means that your inner eye, sometimes called True Sight, has been activated, allowing you to detect, see, or otherwise sense these evil spirits and demons. Mister Chang? Edmund? . . . _Grunge_!"

"What, dude?" the tattooed surfer startled awake.

"Have you even heard a word that I've said?"

"Uh... sure?" he blearily blinked, head already nodding off.

"We'll move on to the demonstration portion then," Niko sighed, rolling his eyes as he pulled a plain orange out of his pocket and placed it on the table between them.

"Uh... dude, no offense, but I already had brunch," Grunge commented, sitting back and 'suddenly' wide awake. "What's with the fruit?"

"You're going to destroy it with your magic," Niko answered, deciding to keep everything as simple as he possibly could.

"Say what now?!" he yelped, almost jumping up from his seat, but banging his knees on the bottom of the table kept him there for a few moments more.

"Repeat after me," Niko commanded, holding his right fist to his chest with the first two fingers extended straight up. "Houi!"

"Uhhh..." Grunge just stared at him, completely clueless.

Sighing with frustration, Niko glared, and for the record a Sight mage can _really_ glare when he wants to. Grunge was instantly on his feet, his left hand mimicking Niko's, more or less.

"Your other hand, Edmund," Niko deadpanned.

"Oh, right," he made the correction, and somehow to Niko's mounting surprise, stood perfectly and had the gesture absolutely right.

"Now; _Houi_!" Niko commanded again.

Blinking slowly, Grunge repeated, slower and with uncertainty, "Houi...?"

" _Jouso_!"

"... Jouso."

" _Ketsu_!"

"Ketsu."

" _Metsu_!"

"... metsu..."

Niko narrowed his gaze, but didn't say anything for a moment. Then he walked over to the other side of the table, much to Grunge's nervousness, until he was standing directly behind the shorter kekkaishi.

"Now then," he spoke quietly, yet intently over the young man's shoulder, "To perform this spell, you have to speak each word with _intent_ , and the accompanying gesture, which is also made with intent. With _houi_ , hold your fingers like so and your hand before your chest, like so." As he said this, he manhandled Grunge's right hand into the appropriate gesture. "With _jouso_ , you point at the target, whatever that may be, while focusing on establishing the boundary that you're creating. This will create the two-dimensional border of the kekkai you will be creating. And with _ketsu_ , you summon the kekkai into existence, trapping the target within the three-dimensional barrier. To release it, all you'd do is release your energies while saying the word, _Kai_! But as a matter of fact, most Kekkaishi create barriers to trap and destroy demons and evil spirits. To _destroy_ the target, you would invoke the spell, _Metsu_! Followed immediately by opening a portal to the nether realm with the spell _Tenketsu_ , utilizing the appropriate talisman."

"Uh, you got that talisman, dude?" Grunge asked. "Cause I don't."

"Not to worry," Niko laughed. "We haven't got a demon or evil spirit for you to destroy anyway. That sort of thing, you'd need training with an actual, and experienced, Kekkaishi. Which I am not. I only know these spells, because I've seen them in action. And if I've seen it, I know how the magic works, Mister Chang. Trust me on that."

"OK, sure," Grunge shrugged, scratching the back of his neck, uncomfortable. "And dude, name's Grunge. Eddie, to my friends. Mister Chang is my dad, and... well, lets just say I don't want you to call me Mister Chang, and leave it at that, all right?"

"Fair enough," Niko replied, walking back around to 'his' side of the table. "Once you show me, and yourself, what you can do." He pulled an orange out of his briefcase, which he'd set beside his chair on the floor.

"Put the orange into a kekkai, and use the _metsu_ spell on it," the mage ordered.

"Uh... 'kay...?" Grunge shrugged and did as he was told. "Houi! Jouso! Ketsu!"

There was the spark of magic, a square line of power traced out, and then a crimson cube surrounding the fruit on the table. Grunge was surprised it had worked on his first try. Privately, so was Niko.

"Go ahead, Grunge," the mage prompted him. "Use the destruction spell on it."

Nodding, he took a breath, focused on destroying the orange, and incanted, " _Metsu_!"

It was like a reverse explosion, with everything crashing down to a single point, which in the end couldn't contain everything, so it resulted in pieces of exploded fruit flying everywhere. Despite getting a seed in the eye, Grunge couldn't contain himself as he exclaimed, "Cool!"

He was, after all, a guy. Explosions are cool.

"Yes, quite," Niko said, using a cloth to wipe his face clean. "Now imagine doing that to the trapped spirit of a little girl that would kill or possess you and other innocent people."

"Whoa," the young kekkaishi glared at the mage. "Major buzz-kill, dude. So, I can like, make energy shields and blow up what goes inside them, right?"

"There is a great deal more to it, Edmund, but essentially, yes," said Niko.

"Awesome!"

"Which is why you need training," he said.

"Wait, what?"

"I am not a Kekkaishi," he said. "Harry is not a Kekkaishi. As a matter of fact, the only experienced Kekkaishi that _I_ know of are in Japan. A small village known as—"

 _Continued..._


End file.
